Christ Church sits imposingly in
the centre of Great Yarmouth at what is being
comprehensively restored with the aid of European money
as St George's Circus. Directly opposite stands the
currently derelict yet still elegant 18th Century church
of St George, about to be converted into a concert venue.
Christ Church seems austere in comparison.

It was
built as King Street Congregational chapel in 1854, and
the architects were Kerrs of Norwich, although Bill
Wilson in the revised Pevsner notes, curiously, that the
plans were altered by Thomas Farrow of Diss. As it
is now a joint URC/Methodist church, you might simply
assume that the Congregationalists here were drawn into
the United Reformed Church when it was created in 1972,
but in fact they had moved out to join the other
Congregationalist community a short distance off in
Greyfriars Way in 1930, and this building was sold to the
Methodists. It became Methodist Central Hall in 1938. The
Great Yarmouth Methodist and United Reformed Churches
then united in 1989, and the Congregationalists came
back, the church being restyled as Christ Church.

Bill
Wilson, unsurprisingly, finds little to admire.
As he memorably puts it, the church appears doubly
starved of invention in comparison with St
George to which it sits so close, not least
because of its poor towers - did they
ever have spirelets on them? The name on the
frontage reads, curiously, CHRISTCHURCH as a
single word, but everywhere else two are used.
The main entrance below is perhaps the jauntiest
feature, but that is an alteration of 1990. All
in all, not exactly the church you'd hope to find
in a seaside town.

I came here on the Historic
Churches bike ride of 2010, hoping to see inside,
but Christ Church was not taking part. Turning
again to Wilson, he notes that the interior has
been split horizontally, with a chapel above and
a meeting room below, and that the architect was
Peter Codling, who also converted the
Congregationalists' other church in Greyfriars
Way into offices.